A Once-Perfect Day For Bananafish (Electric Literature's Recommended Reading)

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Mieko Kawakami invites us to revisit one of J. D. Salinger's classic short story most beloved short stories. In their introduction, Ted Goossen and Motoyuki Shibata, editors of Monkey Business, the magazine where this translated story first appeared, write, "We love the idea of the three-year-old Sybil Carpenter in 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish' as an old woman at the end of her life, with the memory of that strange young man, Seymour Glass, flickering in and out of her consciousness. Mieko is a wonderful singer-songwriter as well as one of Japan’s major novelists, and we can hear the beautiful cadence of her poetry in Hitomi Yoshio’s great translation."

About Recommended Reading:
Great authors inspire us. But what about the stories that inspire them? Recommended Reading, the latest project from Electric Literature, publishes one story every week, each chosen by a great author or editor. In this age of distraction, we uncover writing that's worth slowing down and spending some time with. And in doing so, we help give great writers, literary magazines, and independent presses the recognition they deserve.

About the author:
Mieko Kawakami is a novelist, poet, singer, and actress. Her awards include the Akutagawa Prize, the Nakahara Chūya Poetry Prize, and the Murasaki Shikibu Literary Prize. She has published five books of fiction as well as two books of poetry, and her latest book is Dreams of Love, Etc., a collection of short stories.

About the Translator:
Hitomi Yoshio received her doctorate from Columbia University in 2012 and currently teaches Japanese literature at Florida International University in Miami. In 2011 and 2012 she was an indispensable interpreter at the Monkey Business International 1 and 2 launch events in New York and Toronto.

About the Guest Editor:
Monkey Business International is the in-translation offspring of the Tokyo-based magazine Monkey Business, which was founded in 2008 by Motoyuki Shibata, one of Japan’s most highly regarded men of letters. Monkey Business International aims to translate and present a wide array of established and emerging authors, showcasing the best of contemporary Japanese literature. With the generous support of the Nippon Foundation, A Public Space is the publisher and partner of Monkey Business International. Monkey Business and A Public Space first conceived of Monkey Business International when Shibata curated a portfolio of Japanese literature in the debut issue of A Public Space.